How to Make Sure Social Media Plus Work Doesn't Equal a Total Disaster

Tips worth reading, right this way.

Social media used to be a fun distraction, but now it's an integrated part of our daily lives. Businesses hire people exclusively to manage their Facebook and Twitter (and Instagram and Tumblr and Pinterest...) presences, proving social media has officially gone from a way to post pictures of your friends to something that can make or break a company. Since the lines between person and brand are rapidly blurring, enforcing boundaries online is becoming increasingly important, especially when it comes to interacting with colleagues and contacts. Read on for tips on how to handle social media in the workplace.

Create separation between church and state.

And by this we mean between business you and personal you. Draw clear and distinct lines so things don't get messy! One of the easiest (and most important) divisions? Keeping Facebook for friends and LinkedIn for professional contacts. As a journalist, people often try to send me pitch emails or press releases through Facebook, resulting in friend requests from people I've never met. While it's tempting to say yes to everyone in order to make sure I never miss a good story, I like keeping my personal life a bit more personal! Are you comfortable with a publicist you worked with once two years ago but have never met IRL seeing your dorky #throwbackthursday braces pictures or a bunch of status updates about your cat? Me neither. If professional acquaintances try to connect with you on Facebook, politely let them know that you prefer to keep all your contacts in one place so you don't overlook anything important, then send a LinkedIn request to soften the blow.

Consider creating two profiles.

If you really want to connect with business colleagues on Facebook so that you only need to use one site, consider creating two different accounts: one for your relatives and the people you're actually friends with and one for promoting your projects and keeping in touch with work contacts. Just make sure that the private page is unsearchable if you decide to go that route! (And pro tip: Check and update your Facebook settings early and often—they make changes a lot.) You may also consider making a fan page for yourself or your blog/project/business instead of a distinct second profile. Becoming really good at periodically checking your Facebook "other" inbox will be important in this case, since that's where messages from people you aren't friends with land.

Be a (smart) follower.

The rules for Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest are a little murkier. For some people, those profiles are entirely personal, but for many, they can also be an extension of your professional self. If you fall in the first category and keep those accounts private, well, see below. If you fall in the second category, make sure you follow smartly! A good rule of thumb is to follow work friends as you would any other friends, but only follow bosses or people in the office you don't know well if they too use those platforms for professional purposes.

Don't assume that anything is private.

This seems like a no-brainer, but we're going to say it anyway: Regardless of your privacy settings, never post something (on any platform!) that you wouldn't want someone at work to come across. We've all seen what happens when one person tweets something careless and then it gets picked up by blogs and retweeted into oblivion. Even if you set your account to private, one of your followers may manually retweet something you say, meaning you're no longer in control of what happens next. And deleting tweets doesn't always work—sites like the Wayback Machine and Google Cache will keep the tweets around even if you don't want them. Also, screenshots! Those private Instagram and Facebook accounts you have can be screenshot and emailed out in two seconds flat, so really, don't believe anything you post is truly secret.

Legal disclaimers can't be written by non-lawyers.

On a related note, how many Twitter accounts have you seen with something like, "Tweets do not reflect the opinions of my employer" written in the bio? While those messages are well-intentioned, they don't hold any legal weight. You can still get in trouble with your company for things you say and do online, even if you put a disclaimer on them. If you're not sure about whether to post something, ask yourself how you'd feel if you had to read it out loud in front of your boss. If you wouldn't share it with her or him, reconsider whether you'd share it with the entire world.